Blog: How to absolutely jinx yourself

Hey, remember how last time I said I was on top of things? I shouldn't have done that, because the inevitability of my life is that nothing remains stable--everything is ups and downs, and if it seems like things are going well it's only because I'm hurtling towards the edge of the waterfall.

That's not me being pessimistic, I think I just actually have some sort of cycle going in and out of depression, so if things are going really well I'll eventually come back to this inexplicable feeling that nothing I do brings me any joy, that everything is pointless and that I don't know who I truly am.

The neat thing about that is that I also shoot back out of it eventually and actually get a huge boost in productivity, so I spent yesterday drawing twice as much as usual, finishing up the August requests (bar one that's going to be a little different, and I'll talk about that in the future), reworking an old drawing and doing sketches for the Monthly Damsel.

So yes, enough being a downer, let's talk about some cool stuff.

Above you can see a before/after comparison of the drawing I reworked, featuring Laxia from Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. I originally created this in 2018(?), predating "Sophitia's Lament" which was a bit of a watershed moment in quality for me. I never finished it at the time because there was so much detail on her outfit that I lost interest.

I've since developed some techniques that make it easier, but obviously I've also improved a lot in general, and if I was to pull the drawing up to my current standards I'd basically have to start over. Instead, I decided I would finish the details and shading while keeping the original linework... except for her face, which looked a bit embarrassing. It's quite the transformation, wouldn't you say?

Now, this drawing is more or less finished at the time of writing, but I'm not sure what to do with it. Should I make a pack of gag variants? Can I sell it like the others, even though a lot of the drawing is of an older, lesser quality? What do you guys think?

The second image featured above is a set of preliminary sketches for the Monthly Damsel, Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War. I tried a few different things; the original pose is appealing, but I gave it the Rosie twist by improving the bindings and adding a bit of yuri action. However, I also had the idea of giving her a frogtie, which I did at a few different angles.

I really can't decide which one to use! I really like all of them, and I'm sure I'll use each of these poses in some way, but which one should be Deedlit? Keep in mind that guest star Pirotess isn't necessarily exclusive to the first version; I can still draw her into the other versions, so don't let that sway your decision. What do you think I should do? Let me know in the comments!

That's all for today. I look forward to reading your responses. ^.^